2010
Festival About to Begin
6 October 2010
Day 1 of the Main Program today but Day Minus 1 yesterday was pretty good fun too. My workshop was very interesting - only two non-Indonesians, me and Sue Piper, a colleague from Sydney - the other forty or so were mostly Indonesian translators from Jakarta and a few from here in Bali.
John from Lontar who published my novel translation ran it. He had a copy of the newly printed novel and put it in my hand for a few moments then took it back - I get my copies in a couple of days. A magical moment! I didn't even have my glasses handy, but could just make out the shape of my name in small print at the bottom of the back cover – and inside the flyleaf. That is all that translators get in the world of publishing, apparently. But, as I learned in the workshop, a translation is a whole new work now owned by me - and Lontar who paid for it in a contract - or rather in this case, has not yet paid for it, but says it will - only peanuts compared to my recent work translating endless ID cards of investors for a Securities firm back in Sydney, but way more rewarding in other ways! (PS They did finally pay - $1000 - much more than I thought! But not a lot for a 380-page book and the hundreds of hours I spent on it.)
At the workshop we had a long session with an Indonesian woman all in Indonesian re issues working as a translator in Indonesia. I know her by name from the translators' email list I used to belong to, (but found the hundreds of emails a day swamped me.) John spoke on tips for translators - very helpful. In the afternoon we went through the mini short stories that we had to do "for homework" before we came and isolate the translation issues in them that would need to be handled so a foreign readership could read them.
Cathy was having a day of shopping with Josh. (Looking at sponge rubber for his back verandah sofa.) In the late afternoon I went to a book launch - on a book about widow burning and the slave trade in old Bali - yes, this charming island has a ghastly history that the tourist promoters would rather keep hidden! Then up to Threads of Life, the weaving foundation that promotes the traditional weaving of indigenous communities. Jean and William are good friends. They had brought a group of musicians and dancers to Ubud from Savu Island, off Timor. The main crop there is the nectar from the Lontar palm - sugar and palm wine- their rituals centre around this valuable tree (the palm fronds of which make “books”- hence the publisher’s name). They had closed off the tiny street outside the shop and erected a screen and put out chairs. The performance was magical - we learned all about Savu from the old leader who had come with them, plus some excellent slides, and William translated. The dancers were charming, dressed in spectacular woven materials - in all the audience went wild with pleasure. Oral and dance stories - not books. There is nothing else like it at this very western, book-oriented festival. And none of us will ever get to Savu! And here Threads of Life has brought it to Bali for us all to witness. Cathy had got there early and got a front side row seat so had excellent photo ops.
The next part of the evening, in another venue, was a tribute to Gus Dur, the blind ex-president who died this year, plus some modern choreographed dances to ancient legends, with awful psychedelic spiral lighting swirling all over the dancers till I felt sick! A world away from the unpretentiousness of the Savu dancers telling of their weaving.
Late night - on the go all day. Talking about being on the go, I need to get going and get on today's roller coaster!
John from Lontar who published my novel translation ran it. He had a copy of the newly printed novel and put it in my hand for a few moments then took it back - I get my copies in a couple of days. A magical moment! I didn't even have my glasses handy, but could just make out the shape of my name in small print at the bottom of the back cover – and inside the flyleaf. That is all that translators get in the world of publishing, apparently. But, as I learned in the workshop, a translation is a whole new work now owned by me - and Lontar who paid for it in a contract - or rather in this case, has not yet paid for it, but says it will - only peanuts compared to my recent work translating endless ID cards of investors for a Securities firm back in Sydney, but way more rewarding in other ways! (PS They did finally pay - $1000 - much more than I thought! But not a lot for a 380-page book and the hundreds of hours I spent on it.)
At the workshop we had a long session with an Indonesian woman all in Indonesian re issues working as a translator in Indonesia. I know her by name from the translators' email list I used to belong to, (but found the hundreds of emails a day swamped me.) John spoke on tips for translators - very helpful. In the afternoon we went through the mini short stories that we had to do "for homework" before we came and isolate the translation issues in them that would need to be handled so a foreign readership could read them.
Cathy was having a day of shopping with Josh. (Looking at sponge rubber for his back verandah sofa.) In the late afternoon I went to a book launch - on a book about widow burning and the slave trade in old Bali - yes, this charming island has a ghastly history that the tourist promoters would rather keep hidden! Then up to Threads of Life, the weaving foundation that promotes the traditional weaving of indigenous communities. Jean and William are good friends. They had brought a group of musicians and dancers to Ubud from Savu Island, off Timor. The main crop there is the nectar from the Lontar palm - sugar and palm wine- their rituals centre around this valuable tree (the palm fronds of which make “books”- hence the publisher’s name). They had closed off the tiny street outside the shop and erected a screen and put out chairs. The performance was magical - we learned all about Savu from the old leader who had come with them, plus some excellent slides, and William translated. The dancers were charming, dressed in spectacular woven materials - in all the audience went wild with pleasure. Oral and dance stories - not books. There is nothing else like it at this very western, book-oriented festival. And none of us will ever get to Savu! And here Threads of Life has brought it to Bali for us all to witness. Cathy had got there early and got a front side row seat so had excellent photo ops.
The next part of the evening, in another venue, was a tribute to Gus Dur, the blind ex-president who died this year, plus some modern choreographed dances to ancient legends, with awful psychedelic spiral lighting swirling all over the dancers till I felt sick! A world away from the unpretentiousness of the Savu dancers telling of their weaving.
Late night - on the go all day. Talking about being on the go, I need to get going and get on today's roller coaster!